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Hyakkimaru sat down on his bedding with a heavy but nearly soundless sigh, his whole body aching and his wooden limbs feeling much heavier than usual. Practicing with the wooden sword was more exhausting than climbing trees for fruit and swimming in rivers for fish. His familiar spirit was relentless in their attacks, and more than once they had jabbed Hyakkimaru harder than he would have liked. He knew the familiar spirit was not looking to hurt him, and that they felt sorry when Hyakkimaru was knocked down during their practice fights. He understood that the whole point was to teach him to defend himself against those red spirits.
Hyakkimaru did not know much about them, and yet he found himself thinking of them as evil, foul, nasty and vicious. There was something more than these red spirits attacking him that made Hyakkimaru want to destroy them all. He did not understand why, but their mere existence was abhorrent to him. He wanted to understand this feeling, because he had never hated anything or anyone before. But after puzzling over it for several days, he had to concede defeat and shelve that explanation for later. For now it was enough that he understood that the red spirits were out to hurt him.
Hyakkimaru turned his head to look at the white haze of his familiar spirit, who laid next to him. Would the red spirits hurt his familiar spirit too? This was another puzzle. His familiar spirit was strong and capable, they were the one taking care of him. He had seen them repel the red demons with relative ease, but not destroy them. Was his familiar spirit unwilling or unable to destroy the red ones? What if they got hurt? Could they get hurt?
He reached out his prosthetic hand and touched that familiar back, unconsciously looking for reassurance.
“What’s the matter, Hyakkimaru? Rain won’t let you sleep?”
Jukai spoke to his adopted son normally, even though he knew he was deaf. The doctor could swear this child understood some meaning somehow, the way he stared at him so intently and seemed enraptured. So Jukai spoke to him, told him stories and sometimes even sang him a little ditty while he worked, and Hyakkimaru seemed to soak it in in his own way.
“I hope your joints don’t hurt.” He gently patted Hyakkimaru’s shoulder and watched for any signs of distress. The boy could only express himself in limited ways with that mask on, and Jukai did his best to learn all the subtleties in his son’s small expressions. He was relieved when Hyakkimaru did not show any discomfort. Some of his patients had said changes in pressure due to rain made their prostheses really sore. But Hyakkimaru seemed completely incapable feeling any pain at all, something that worried Jukai most over his other disabilities.
“Try to sleep, eh? If the rain doesn’t blow the roof off our heads, we’ll be doing some repairs tomorrow.” He chuckled and closed his eyes to fall asleep.
Hyakkimaru felt the pressure of his familiar spirit’s hand on his shoulder and saw their aura emanating concern and then relief; and he knew he was being comforted. Over what, he had no idea.
He’d long learned that there were things happening around him that white spirits were often stressed about, and more often than not whatever it was stopped happening before he could figure out what it was. He’d decided to only worry if his own familiar white spirit was worried over it, and even then the familiar spirit would show him what to do or where to go. All Hyakkimaru needed to be alright was his familiar spirit.
He was drifting into the sleep with this thought when he noticed something. The ground itself was vibrating. Maybe he hadn’t noticed before his breathing slowed as he began to sleep, but now it was all that he could feel. He turned to the white spirit and saw them laying still, probably sleeping already. Did they not feel this? Was this normal?
Hyakkimaru wondered if he should try to ignore it and sleep when the vibrations got stronger and stronger.
He felt his entire body shiver, which he couldn’t remember ever doing before. He couldn’t stand it any longer.
“Huh, what?” Jukai felt someone shaking him and he opened his eyes to see his son kneeling next to him. Hyakkimaru looked really out of sorts, with the mouth of his mask opening and closing as if he wanted to speak.
As Jukai became more awake, he noticed the roar of the rain had gotten much, much stronger. It almost felt as if an entire waterfall was being dumped on his house. Could Hyakkimaru feel it too?
“Don’t worry, it’s just rain. It know it sounds like a lot, but this is a sturdy house, we’ll be alright.”
Hyakkimaru had managed to get the familiar spirit awake and sitting up, but they were not doing anything to stop the situation. Hyakkimaru was frustrated, because he didn’t know himself what he expected the familiar spirit to do, only that he expected them to fix this.
The vibrations around him got stronger and stronger and Hyakkimaru could feel something indescribably strong and powerful approaching. He desperately looked around for a red spirit stalking on the roof, or along the wall, or simply anywhere. Red spirits he could understand! Whatever this was, he could not. He hated this. Even when there had been situations he could not understand, he had never felt like this before. Not so vulnerable. Not so exposed.
He hadn’t felt afraid before.
Then suddenly he felt, he saw , the immensely powerful presence consolidate in one spot and split reality in two in a strike of yellow energy.
Jukai felt the static electricity in the air before the lightning struck. He had wondered if there was any way he could warn his son about it. What he wasn’t prepared for was Hyakkimaru jumping so high when it struck. He also wasn’t prepared for it to strike so close to his house that he could feel the earth shaking and he worried about his ears after that deafening thunderclap.
“Gods above!” He exclaimed, not knowing how right he was. There was a Raijin floating in a black cloud above their house, beating his mystical drum with fervor and not caring for the lives of mere mortals underneath.
He’d never seen the boy like this. He was running around the house looking for a place to hide, occasionally stopping where Jukai was and trying to drag him along, but giving up after a few seconds and looking around in all directions in a panic. If Jukai didn’t know he was blind he could have sworn Hyakkimaru had seen that lightning as clearly as if he had been outside.
He was trying to get his son to calm down when there was a second strike. Fortunately it was not as close as the first one and therefore not as loud, but it still affected Hyakkimaru. The boy stopped dead on his tracks and laid on the floor, as if he had accepted that he was going to die and was just waiting for the final blow.
Jukai gently scooped him up and then sat down cross-legged on his bedding, holding Hyakkimaru close the whole time. He began to rock back and forth while running one hand on his back and the other cradling his head. He wanted Hyakkimaru’s violent trembling to stop and this seemed to be working. He smiled to himself when he realized he hadn’t held him like this for a long time, almost since he had gotten his limb prosthetics. It had been a while since Hyakkimaru had clung to him like this, like a child. He’d gotten so independent that at times Jukai forgot how young he still was.
Should I feel guilty for enjoying that he still needs me? Jukai mused as Hyakkimaru stopped trembling entirely and his breath became more and more even. One day you’ll be big and strong, you won’t need me to feed you, or protect you from monsters . Hyakkimaru’s hands, which had a death grip on Jukai’s robes when he had picked him, were slacking.
“When you’re no longer frightened of lightning, I hope you’ll think of me.” He whispered.